Why is it important? – According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of worker deaths and reported injuries in the United States has decreased by more than 60 percent in the past four decades since the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act was passed.
However, every year, more than 5,000 workers are killed on the job (a rate of 14 per day), and more than 3.6 million suffer a serious job-related injury or illness. Serious job-related injuries or illnesses don’t just hurt workers and their families but can hurt business in a variety of ways. Implementing a safety and health program, however, can improve small- and medium-sized businesses’ safety and health performance, save money, and improve competitiveness.
Safety and health programs help businesses:
Prevent workplace injuries and illnesses Improve compliance with laws and regulations Reduce costs, including significant reductions in workers’ compensation premiums Engage workers Enhance social responsibility goals Increase productivity and enhance overall business operations
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What are the benefits of safety and health?
Why is it important? – It’s good to know the benefits, so we’ve listed 10 reasons why health and safety is important.
It is morally right to ensure your workers return home safe and healthy at the end of every working day. By protecting your workers, you reduce absences, ensuring that your workplace is more efficient and productive, Research shows that workers are more productive in workplaces that are committed to health and safety. Reducing down-time caused by illness and accidents means less disruption – and saves your business money, In some countries, health and safety legislation is criminal law and you are legally obliged to comply with it. Legal breaches can result in prosecution, fines and even imprisonment of senior executives. To attract investors and partnerships you may need to demonstrate your commitment to sustainability and corporate social responsibility, which will include how you protect your workers. Increasingly, customers want to buy products and services that are produced ethically – so you also need to think about the work practices throughout your supply chain and deal only with ethical suppliers that protect their workforce. More and more, job hunters – particularly Millennials and Generation Z – seek roles with employers who share their values, so without strong corporate responsibility and sustainability practices you may struggle to attract or retain the best employees, A good health and safety record is a source of competitive advantage : it builds trust in your reputation and brand, while poor health and safety performance will directly affect profitability and can result in loss of trade or even closure of the business. Good health and safety at work secures long-term benefits for you, your business and the wider community.
What is advantage of safety and security?
2. Fewer Illnesses and Injuries Increase Productivity – Beyond a desire to protect the people you work with, reducing illness and injuries also protects your business. You can reduce or eliminate direct compensation costs and indirect costs of lost productivity.
- Businesses are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance in almost every U.S. state.
- High injury rates in your workplace will increase insurance premiums.
- And if a business is underinsured for major claims, the gap in coverage is usually borne by the business.
- Then there are the indirect costs of lost productivity.
In some sectors, such as in construction or manufacturing, certain injuries require investigations that shut down operations until they’re complete. Unsafe working environments can also lower employee morale and cause employees to be distracted if they’re concerned about their safety.
Why is safety important in a workplace?
Safety Pays for Everyone – The cost of injury prevention is far less than the cost of an injury. A safe and healthy workplace attracts and retains quality employees. It’s an asset to a community, operates more efficiently and enjoys a healthy bottom line. The business and the workers thrive in a safe, healthy, respectful and caring environment Safe and healthy workplaces:
Have more satisfied, productive workers who
Produce higher quality products and services Return to work more quickly after an injury or illness Feel loyal to the organization
Are better places to work Retain employees Establish positive community relations
What is the importance of safety?
Why Safety Is Important – I believe there is no one who does not appreciate the word SAFETY ; even with very little understanding about it. Safety as its rightly defined is – A condition of being protected from anything or situation which could likely cause danger, risk, or injury.
Help protect against danger, risk and injury.
Though safety is deeper than it is defined above as is explained in one of my previous articles – What is safety, we have still been able to draw out something from the literary definition of safety. At this point, let me highlight the reasons why safety is important in three (3) broad categories: These categories constitutes Why we practice safety?
- Safety is important for moral reasons: Morally speaking, no one want to get hurt, and no one is happy that someone else gets hurt.
- Safety is important for economic reasons: When you are involved in accident, you spend money. Thus may be detrimental to your business.
- Safety is important for legal reasons: Since safety is a law, non-compliance will attract punishment in terms of fines, imprisonment or your business may be shut-down by regulatory bodies.
Lets break down the importance from the categories: – Moral reasons
- Safety help prevent injury/dead to individuals
- Helps prevent damage to property and equipment
- Ensure a happy and healthy workforce
– Economic reasons
- Reduces lost time
- Increased financial benefits
- Safe money from payment of compensations, hospital bills, death right, etc.
- Improve productivity
- Reduce absenteeism
- Enhances company image & reputation
- Enhance competitive advantage in contract bidding
- Reduce workers turnover
- Attract competent and dedicated staffs, etc.
– Legal reasons
Protect firm/organization from legal actions
From the benefits listed – Who will not love to enjoy all the above benefit. The importance of safety cannot be over emphasized. People say – If you think safety is costly, try accident Answer these questions Have you been injured before from accident? – How did you feel? Have you seen someone get injured or die through accident? – How did you feel? This feeling alone is enough reason to understand how important safety is.
Read Also : The fearsome hidden cost of accidents As your safety is of paramount importance, it is important that you stay up to date with the health and safety information. Try taking on appropriate health and safety courses to equip yourself with how to assure safety in different stages of your life.
Appreciate the importance of safety, act safe, and encourage others to do same. Additional information
Why is safety promotion important?
Safety promotion is the process used to communicate, develop and sustain safety in your business. It helps your business improve safety performance by communicating lessons learned, broader safety information, and the distribution of Safety Management System (SMS) principles and associated procedures.
What does safety management deals with?
A safety management system (SMS) is defined as an organization-wide process designed to manage safety risk in the workplace. A safety management system can be created to fit any business type and/or industry sector. Generally, effective SMS processes and procedures: Define how the organization manages risk.
What is the advantage of online safety and security?
Online Safety? – While cybersecurity protects devices and networks from harm by third parties, Online Safety protects the people using them from harm by the devices and networks (and therefore third parties) through awareness, education, information and technology.
- It is what we call the appropriate approach to personal safety when using digital technologies.
- Online Safety is being aware of the nature of the possible threats that you could encounter whilst engaging in activity through the Internet, these could be security threats, protecting and managing your personal data, onliine reputation management, and avoiding harmful or illegal content.
It isn’t about scaremongering, it isn’t about criticism and chaos, it’s about focusing on the positive and enriching side of digital life whilst recognising its challenges and how to best approach them.
Is safety and security a value?
Value vs. Priority – To understand why, you have to understand the difference between a value and a priority. is defined as an established right to a certain higher degree of importance or precedence. In other words, something is more important than something else.
On the other hand, is a fundamental belief that guides your attitudes, choices, and actions in all respects. If you think of safety as a priority, you think of it as more important than other factors, but that’s mostly a statement of relativity. If you think of safety as a core value, you think of it as a guiding principle behind everything you do.
Safety as a priority treats safety as another item on the to-do list, albeit an important item. Safety as a core value treats safety as the most important item. More than that, safety is the commonality behind every choice and action. Think of it this way, our priorities change depending on the situation but our core values usually don’t.
